Category Archives: Our Gang

We at the Wax Apple wish all of our readers a very Merry Christmas and prosperous New Year. We thank you for your support of the website and hope you will be equally generous with the printed version of “The Premiere Research Journal Devoted to Laurel and Hardy and the Hal Roach All-Stars” coming your way in 2007. Your support will mean the success or failure of this endeavor.

To help spread the Christmas cheer this season, we offer up some rare photos and curios pertaining to the Christmas holiday from the ones we love best: the stars of the Hal Roach Studios. (more…)

There’s no question that producer Hal Roach knew how to make a buck. The comedians of his studios were extremely popular with the public and Roach knew that there was a great deal of advertising value in them. Of course, taking advantage of his performers’ popularity doesn’t begin to approach the use and over-use of celebrities of the current age when it comes to advertising and merchandising…but you knew that.

What you may not know is that Hal Roach would periodically take photos of his stars endorsing products of the day and then submit them to their various companies to see if there was any advertising value in them. (more…)

The stunning Jean Parker, best known to Laurel & Hardy buffs as the lovely Georgette, the object of Oliver Hardy’s affection in The Flying Deuces, passed away on November 30, 2005. Jean had an illustrious Hollywood career starring in over seventy-five films. She also worked in Zenobia, Hal Roach’s 1939 attempt to team Oliver Hardy with Harry Langdon during a contract dispute with Stan Laurel.

Among Jean’s films, she co-starred in three with Our Gang star Edith Fellows, most notably in Life Begins with Love in 1937. Here is a photo of the two starlets together: (more…)